Teachers' recruitment scam: Arpita Mukherjee puts full blame on Partha Chatterjee

Arpita Mukherjee, an accused in the alleged multi-crore recruitment scam in state-run schools in West Bengal and once a close confidant of former Education Minister Partha Chatterjee, on Monday put the entire blame on Chatterjee for dragging her into the case.

After Mukherjee was presented before a special PMLA court here, her counsel described Chatterjee as the mastermind in the case in which flats owned by his client were used to store the proceeds of the scam.

To recall, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had recovered several crores of rupees, gold biscuits and ornaments from the two flats in the name of Arpita Mukherjee last year.

On this recovery, she said that Chatterjee was the owner of the seized money and gold.

"It was Partha Chatterjee who was the beneficiary of the scam, and not my client. There were other directors in the shell companies opened by Chatterjee apart from my client. But these directors, including Kamal Singh Bhutoria, Mrinmay Malakar and Manoj Jain, were spared. My client has an aging mother," Mukherjee's counsel argued.

In counter argument, the ED counsel said that both Partha Chatterjee and Arpita Mukherjee were equally involved in the case.

"There are 31 life insurance policies in the name of the former minister in which Mukherjee is a nominee. If Mukherjee did not have any connection with the scam, why didn't she open her mouth before and inform the police about the huge amounts stored in the flats owned by her? Why did she agree to be a nominee in so many policies if she was not a partner in the crime," the ED counsel asked.

He also presented before the court a list of properties jointly owned by Chatterjee and Mukherjee.

"Three properties are exclusively in the name of Mukherjee, while the rest are owned jointly by the duo," he said.